More Articles

Progress was reported in the “beer summit” over a house under construction in Marble Cliff, but another front has opened as a second neighbor complained about it.

The village council was scheduled to vote on Monday night on Dave Bell’s variance request for a three-vehicle, 800-square-foot garage at the house he’s building at 1221 Cambridge Blvd. The council postponed its vote after Bell’s neighbor-to-be behind him, Wiley Elliott, who had objected to the variance, said a compromise was in the works.

“We have a gentleman’s agreement,” Bell said yesterday. “We’ll work things out.”

The 2010 ordinance that allowed Bell to split the lot to accommodate two homes requires the new home to be no taller than a home on the south side of the lot that Bell renovated and sold, Cynthia McKay, the village’s fiscal officer, said yesterday.

Sarah Myers, who lives north of the construction site, complained to council members on Monday night about the height of the building.

She said the new home is planned for 34 1/2 feet at the roofline, according to records at Grandview Heights, which handles building-code matters for the village. The home to the south, records said, has a 24 1/2-foot roofline.

Bell said yesterday that the new 3,200-square-foot home, where he plans to live, would be around 31 feet high at the roofline and that the height of the south home is 27 feet.

Bell, who already has ordered roof trusses, said he would seek a height variance if the village finds he’s in violation of the ordinance.

Council members decided to have their staff check on the height of the homes and also determine whether a front porch of the new home violates the 50-foot setback requirement from Cambridge, McKay said.

“The staff is to get its arms around the facts and tell us where we should go from here,” she said.

McKay verified that Elliott said he and Bell were close to an agreement. Elliott could not be reached for comment.